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Cream Potato Salad

A potato salad with a creamy dressing made from eggs, vinegar, sugar, mustard, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Potato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add vinegar, sugar, and ground mustard to the eggs and mix well.

  3. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until thick.

Assemble the salad

  1. Cut the boiled potatoes into dice and place in a large bowl.

  2. Add the minced onion, salt, and celery seed to the potatoes.

  3. Pour the dressing over the potato mixture and stir gently.

Serve

  1. At serving time, fold in the whipped cream and add chopped celery if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Mustard + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the dressing into a rich, creamy custard when cooked gently.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the sweetness and richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Potatoes
Form the bulk of the salad, absorbing the dressing and providing its main texture.
Whipped cream
Folded in at the end to lighten the dressing and add moisture and a smooth, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until thick. The egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can scramble them. A double boiler applies gentle heat, so the dressing thickens smoothly without curdling.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, sugar, mustard, potato, onion, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, sugar, mustard, potato, onion, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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